The Lewis and Clark collections of vascular plants: Names, types, and comments

In his 1813 book Flora Americae Septentrionalis, Frederick Pursh accounted for 132 vascular plant: taxa found by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their 1803-1806 trans-continental expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He prop osed 94 new names based, at least in part, upon their specimens or what has been assumed to be their specimens. He also mentioned Lewis and Clark spec imens under 40 already published names. Considering what is mentioned by Pu rsh in 1813 and what is known from herbaria, we can account for 202 differe nt kinds of plants collected by Lewis and Clark-199 vascular and three non- vascular, The non-vascular plants are not treated here; none is the basis o f a new scientific name. Some 238 herbarium sheers harbor actual or purport ed Lewis and Clark specimens. Our research suggests that four of these shee ts represent material gathered by Thomas Nuttall in 1811, one sheet is gard en material grown from seeds obtained by Nuttall, and a sixth is a cultivat ed specimen grown from seeds collected by the explorers. All of the extant specimens are identified and assigned modern names. NEOTYPES are designated for various Pursh and Nuttall names: Astragalus tenellus, Krascheninnikovi a lanata (based on Diotis lanata), Lathyrus decaphyllus, Lilium andinum, Li lium umbellatum, Potentilla pensylvanica var. strigosa, and Xylosteum cilia tum var. album. Numerous LECTOTYPES are selected to augment those establish ed by others, most notably Paul Cutright (1969) and Joseph Ewan (1979): Ace r circinatum, Acer macrophyllum, Actinella lanata, Amorpha nana, Artemisia lewisii, Bartonia decapetala, Berberis aquifolium, Caprifolium ciliosum, Ce rastium elongatum, Cleome serrulata, Dentaria tenella, Donia squarrosa, Ery thronium grandiflorum, Gaultheria shallon, Geum ciliatum, Geum triflorum, H ippophae argentea, Juniperus communis var. depressa, Juniperus sabina var. procumbens, Lilium pudicum, Lupinaster macrocephalus, Mimulus lewisii, Phac elia heterophylla, Philadelphus lewisii, Rhamnus alnifolius, Ribes aureum, Ribes aureum var. villosum, Rubus spectabilis, Salvia trichostemmoides, San tolina suaveolens, Spiraea capitata, Spiraea discolor, Symphoricarpos albus var. laevigatus, Trifolium microcephalum, and Vaccinium ovatum. In all ins tances we have maintained the current nomenclature and traditional circumsc ription of each name.